May 9, 2013 – The Ministry of Environmental Protection announced investigation results of groundwater pollution in the North China Plain which started in late February 2013 due to complaints about groundwater contamination.

The investigations carried out by the MEP of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan looked at the wastewater discharge of 25,875 enterprises the across six provinces over 40 days. They found 558 of them have various environmental violations. 424 of these were ordered to rectify the pollution within a specified time period and 88 companies were fined a total of RMB 6.13 million. In addition, the MEP is in the process of addressing the violations with appropriate “punishment” for 80 companies.

The investigations revealed 55 companies are using seepage wells and pits with no anti-leakage protection to discharge and store waste/wastewater. The spread of these 55 companies are as follows:

• 5 in Tianjin;
• 6 in Hebei;
• 1 in Shanxi;
• 14 in Shandong; and
• 29 in Henan.

The MEPs of these five provinces will continue to investigate the usage of such wells/pits and will take steps to stop such practices. As such the list of the companies in violation will be made public soon.

Read Ministry of Environmental Protection announcement here

Separately, Caixin reported that although no evidence of high pressure injection of hazardous waste underground are yet found, investigations are still ongoing.  Read Caixin article here

---

The North China Plain mainly suffers heavy metal pollution from mercury, chromium, cadmium and lead; at the same time, major organic pollutants are benzene, carbon tetrachloride, and trichlorethylene.